After the Italian Grand Prix Webber was just eight points behind team-mate Vettel with the pair having been close all year. However, following an upgrade introduced at the next race in Singapore Vettel went on to win four races in a row and ended the season over 100 points clear of his team-mate.

Webber admitted in 2011 that he struggled to adapt his driving style to the exhaust-blown diffuser compared to Vettel, but when asked by ESPN if the Singapore update took this year's RB8 away from him in relation to his team-mate Webber replied: "Not really, no.

"Singapore's been a track - there and Hockenheim - that were the two venues that were probably my weakest performances of the year, although we had a howler with strategy in Singapore to rub salt in the wounds. So not really; I was strong in Suzuka, I was very strong there and Seb and I were on the front row. I was strong in Korea, I was strong in India.

"So I was not uncompetitive after Singapore, it was just that we had an alternator, we had Grosjean, we had things which are like dropping your toast and it lands butter-side down or whatever. That's just the way things were going at some stages."

Chris Medland is assistant editor at ESPNF1 Chris Medland, who in his youth even found the Pacific GPs entertaining, talked his way in to work at the British Grand Prix and was somehow retained for three years. He also worked on the BBC's F1 output prior to becoming assistant editor ahead of the 2011 season